Proper Reefing

[Melody Miller]

Hi Guys and Gals:Some of you regulars may remember how we beat the subject of reefing to death when I first got my boat (April 99)Let's beat it some more.Today I sailed in 15 to 21 knot winds with the main reefed once and the jib fully deployed. It was good.However, I noticed another sailor with a reefed main and his sail looked nice and taught whereas might was decidedly sagging. (The main is relatively new) I just tie down the reef lines at the clew and the tack.Is there an adjustment I'm missing? Thanks,Melody

 

[Justin - O'day Owner's Web]

Is the clew fitting pulling aft-ward enough?

Melody,Is there enough tension across the foot of the sail? Also, I would try making sure that the ties that gather the excess sail are loose, they may also contribute to messing up sail shape sometimes (although they are more likely to pull out if there is that much force on them). If your outhaul is long enough, I would try removing it from the normal clew, and putting it through the reefed clew, then tensioning it. If this solves the problem, you know that the reefing block is too far forward.Good luck,Justin - O'day Owner's Web

 

[Bryan C.]

Reefing

Don't remember your boat, and you don't say where the sail is sagging; but a reefed sail is pulled taut by tension on the three corners of the sail: The main halyard, the cringle at the reef point in the luff (front) of the sail, and the reef cringle in the leach (back). Like Justin said, the reef lines (the little lines in the body of the sail) are only there for the purpose of keeping the bunched part of the foot of the sail tidy, and are not there to take any load or form sail shape (you can rip out your sail that way). You should attach the reef cringle in the luff on the hook in the fore part of the boom or on the mast and then tension the main halyard. That should put tension on the luff of the sail; should be no sagging there. Then you pull the leach of the sail down and aft with the reefing line. Generally the reefing line goes thru the cringle in the leach, and then attaches to a point on the bottom of the boom. On my '88 35, the attachment point on the bottom of the boom is a little U bolt piece that slides for and aft along the bottom of the boom. If that attachment piece is too far forward on the boom (i.e. it is farther forward on the boom that the reef cringle in the leach on a verticle plane) the effect will be that the reef cringle on the sail (what will become the reefed clew) is pulled down but not back. You will have a full bellied (sagging?) sail. So before you start hauling on the reefing line that pulls the leach reef cringle down, make sure the attachment point of the reef line on the boom is aft of the reef cringle on the leach so it pulls the reef cringle down and back. You should then loosely tie the reef lines as Justin says. With the head being pulled up by the halyard, the reefed tack being held down on the hook on the mast or boom, and the reefed clew being pulled back and down, you have tension on all three points of the sail and there should be no sag, which, incidently, you don't want when you are reefed because fuller sail shape makes more power and you generally want your sails depowered when you reef.